Mr. Marshall Katz
Chairman, Planning Board
Village of Wesley Hills
432 Route 306
Wesley Hills, New York 10952
   
Re: Verizon Wireless Proposed Wireless Communication Facility On the Antrim Theatre Playhouse Property, 15 Spook Rock Road
                        
Dear Marshall:

 

I appeared at the last public hearing on December 2, which was rescheduled for tonight.  I had planned to attend this meeting, but will instead have to be present for a Ramapo Town Board Meeting.  Please accept these written comments on the proposed wireless communications facility proposed by Verizon Wireless on the property of the Antrim Theatre at 15 Spook Rock Road.  I understand that this facility would include a monopole tree cell phone tower at least 100 ft. tall, with capacity for three other signals, generators, and related plant infrastructure. 

 

As supervisor of the Town of Ramapo, I believe the cell phone tower proposed by Verizon Wireless should be denied by the Village of Wesley Hills Planning Board.  Several Rockland County officials and one County Legislator have submitted comments underscoring the lack of necessity for this new proposed tower. Rockland County Legislator Ilan Schoenberger, and Rockland County Director of Fire and Emergency Services Gordon Wren have pointed out in December 1, 2009 comment letters the fact that Verizon has the ability to co-locate at the tower on the Mitch Miller property - a few hundred yards from the Antrim Theatre property -- and institute service there, but that it has not yet done so. 
I also understand that the Village's own code requires wireless providers to co-locate, and that the code allows the Village to deny unnecessary applications in the absence of unsuccessful attempts to co-locate, or in the event that co-location does not produce adequate coverage.  The bottom line is that this application goes against the grain of a decade-long, County-wide effort among our local and County officials and the wireless communications industry to prevent unnecessary proliferation of cell phone towers in Rockland County.

 

Until Verizon actually institutes service at the Mitch Miller property -- and afterward is able to show a resulting gap in coverage -- Verizon cannot confirm its assertions that it has inadequate coverage and "needs" the Spook Rock Road location.  I respectfully urge the Village Planning Board to deny this application, because permitting it in the absence of this showing of real need will result in a proliferation of cell phone towers for no justifiable reason.

 

Verizon has not submitted any evidence disputing those findings by the Rockland County officials who are charged with public safety and welfare.  And the simple fact is that Verizon cannot make any showing one way or the other regarding its coverage capacity, until it starts service at the Mitch Miller property and generates coverage data from that site.  

 

Verizon may have corporate or financial initiatives that it wants to achieve with the proposed location at Spook Rock Road. Obviously, we are all in favor of responsible commercial and business development that benefits our communities.  Sometimes we are faced with hard decisions regarding development that require us to balance growth and preservation. But given Verizon's lack of objective data resulting from its failure to institute service at the Mitch Miller property, I believe the Village should refrain from allowing this historic, bucolic residential neighborhood to be subjected to the rigors of what is essentially a commercial/industrial use. 

 

If and only if Verizon can someday prove real necessity after instituting service at the Mitch Miller property, only then should the Village consider such an application.  Then, and only then, after a stringent SEQRA review that takes a "hard look" at a full and complete record, should the Village make a decision that goes to the heart of balancing development with the preservation of community character and cultural and historic resources.  Right now, I see this application as an unnecessary proliferation of cell phone towers, and I urge that it be denied.